The Five Spot: Entertainment to Put in Your Brain This Week

By Douglas Wolk

September 7, 2015

It’s a week for familiar parts in new configurations: the pipes and ladders of Mario’s world, the stars and smirks of Stephen Colbert’s show, and the broken silences and cracked emotions of Low’s music. And then there’s Sleeping With Other People’s Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis, valiantly trying to keep the parts that once fit together apart.

SALMAN RUSHDIE:TWO YEARS EIGHT MONTHS AND TWENTY-EIGHT NIGHTS
That adds up to 1001 nights, if you’re counting, and Rushdie’s first novel-for-adults since 2008’s The Enchantress of Florence is apparently a post-modern-ish variation on the theme of the Arabian Nights, set in modern-day New York City and involving a fantastical war between supernatural factions. (Sep. 8)

THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT
Colbert’s reportedly ditched old right-wing-pundit character for his new CBS gig in David Letterman’s old spot, but he’s got a hell of an opening-week lineup: George Clooney and Jeb Bush on his first show tonight and Scarlett Johansson, Elon Musk and Kendrick Lamar on Wednesday. The house band will be Jon Batiste and Stay Human. (Sep. 8)

SUPER MARIO MAKER
Here’s how far technology has come in the 30 years since Super Mario Bros. was released: This new Wii U game allows players to build their own levels in the styles of in the rest of the series (up to New Super Mario Bros. U), and then share them online. Recommended reading to go along with it: Andrew Schartmann’s recent book on Koji Kondo’s Mario soundtrack. (Sep. 11)

LOW:* ***ONES AND SIXES*
Married couple Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s stark, subdued band has outlasted most of their ‘90s indie-rock contemporaries many times over — maybe because they’ve audibly evolved with every album, maybe because they’ve always been committed to digging up uncomfortable and unspoken sentiments instead of covering them up with noise. (Sep. 11)

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE
Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis star in writer/director Leslye (Bachelorette) Headland’s new romantic comedy about a problematic meet-cute situation: a couple who hooked up once a decade ago re-meet at a 12-step meeting for sex addicts, become friends, and try to keep each other on the straight and narrow path. Will comedy-of-remarriage tropes bloom? Bet on it. (Sep. 11)